Help create a Loxahatchee Free State and fight energy infrastructure in south Florida!

“This Summer, you’re invited to join Everglades Earth First! in launching a sustained campaign of direct action to defend the ecologically rich South Florida Everglades. Since 2006, Everglades Earth First! (EEF!) has been involved in challenging a massive gas-fired power plant proposed by Florida Power & Light (FPL) a quarter-mile away from the Artuhr R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. The plant — which would consume over 6.5 billion gallons of water per year and emit 12 million tons of CO2 annually, requires 34 miles of gas pipeline through the L8 Canal/Loxahatchee Basin system and would invite over a million homes worth of sprawl — is now under construction in violation of Federal and State laws.

“Over the year EEF! has added our protests to the chorus of local dissent, which has sadly not included several other environmental groups due to FPL pay-offs. We have obstructed the road to FPL’s annual shareholders’ meeting, blocked the entrance to their illegal construction site on the Palm Beach Aggregates, covered the county with fliers and posters and confronted them face-to-face at nearly every public hearing.

“We are ready to take our fight to a new level. Over the next year, while the pipeline and plant are under construction, we intend to launch a sustained campaign of direct action to bring attention to the greed of the energy industry and the failure of the government to respond, even within the bounds of its own corrupt system. We will set up camps on public land to monitor the progress of these projects and slow them down at every step we can. We will document their violations from the field (a tactic known as ground-truthing), we will stop them from harming a fragile ecosystem and its endangered species (including over 100 identified gopher tortoise burrows) and we will help turn the tide against the Energy Empire once and for all. Our camps will model the sustainable, cooperative and decentralized worldview that we believe in. We intend to reclaim the goal of restoration from the stranglehond of bureaucracy into the grassroots community…. And y’all are invited!!”

Read the full call to action here.

More info: www.RiverofGas.info.

There is now a ride board for folks to coordinate rides and supplies to Southern Indiana to help stop I-69. This ride will also be used to coordinate supplies coming to Indiana.  You do not have to register or login to use this message board, but if you post something without registering, please remember to check back for replies or leave contact info so that folks can get a hold of you to make arrangements.

Roadblock Earth First! has called for people to travel to southern Indiana to help stop the Corridor of the Future known as both I-69 and the NAFTA Superhighway. If you can’t travel, there are other ways to help as well.

Upside Down World has a good article on Ecuador’s near-total mining freeze that we recommend anyone interested in South American mining issues should read. The gist of it is that on April 15, Ecuador’s Constitutional Assembly passed a law canceling 88 percent of mining concessions in the country, including all large metal mines.

The Assembly has six months to draft a new mining law. If that law proceeds according to the same guidelines as the temporary freeze (banning mining that damages water resources, banning mining in protected areas and banning concessions to family members of politicians), it could “stop all of IMC, IAMGOLD, Aurelian, Dynasty’s, All Metals, Corriente Resources (Ecuacorrientes project), and Lowell’s - as well as most other metallic mining projects in the country.”

Apparently, the anti-mines movement in Ecuador is very strong and includes members of the Constitutional Assembly. But President Rafael Correa is decidedly pro-mine and has a history of repressing anti-mine protesters, and officials from his administration have said they hope to restart mining by August.

In potentially related news, a number of Ecuador Indymedia activists have been arrested on what appear to be politically motivated charges. Upside Down World notes that “Ecuador Indymedia contributors have been critical of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa’s support for large-scale mining and a proposed Free Trade Agreement with the European Union.”

On Thursday May 8, a coalition of indigenous, environmental and community groups in the Panamanian province of Chiriquí blocked both lanes of the Panamerican Highway in protest of open-pit mining and dams. Of particular concern to locals are plans for dams along the Garcés, Gariché, Chiriquí Viejo and Escarria rivers, but the protesters were overtly opposed to all dams and strip mines.

Among the protesters were approximately 1,000 indigenous people, many of whom had walked for days while fasting in order to attend.

Rather than meeting with the protesters as they had requested, Chiriquí Governor Virgilio Vergara disptached riot police to violently attack and detain the unarmed demonstrators — including women, children and the elderly.

The director of the National Committee for the Defense of Land and Water (Coordinadora Nacional pro Defensa de Tierras y Aguas; CONADETIAGUAS) and an unknown number of indigenous people were arrested. As of May 9, they had not been allowed contact with anyone outside or informed of the charges against them.

CONADETIAGUAS has asked people to write letters of protest to Panamanian President Martín Torrijos (Presidencia de la República, Panamá 1, República de Panamá; (507) 527-9600 — NOTE: this is a Panamanian phone number; the country code is included]); the Minister of Government and Justice (despachosuperior@gobiernoyjusticia.go.pa) and the Director of the National Police.

No contact information for the Director of National Police was provided in CONADETIAGUAS’ press release, but the following is worth a shot:

zpchirig@cwp.net.pa
http://www.policia.gob.pa/miscelaneo/contact.html
http://www.policia.gob.pa/miscelaneo/central.html

International Rivers Network has launched a campaign to pressure Home Depot over its involvement with a wood products company spearheading plans for new dams in Chilean Patagonia:

“Why Home Depot? Home Depot is the largest US customer of CMPC, the wood products company owned by the Matte Group conglomerate leading the controversial dam plans for Chile’s Baker and Pascua rivers. The Matte group hopes that its joint venture with European companies Enel and Endesa will ultimately reap huge profits by building two dams on the Baker River and three on the Pascua River and shipping electricity over 1,500 miles of clearcuts to Chile’s most populated and industrial region near the capital city of Santiago.”

As part of this campaign, International Rivers is encouraging people to email Home Depot.

See our prior Lowdown post on this issue.

A federal judge has issued a restraining order against plans for the Belo Monte Dam on Brazil’s Xingu River due to illegality in the bidding process.

The 11,181 MW Belo Monte Dam would be have the third highest generating capacity of any dam in the world. It is one of only several large dams currently planned for the Amazon basin, along the Xingu, Madeira, Tapajós, Tocantins and other rivers. The government estimates that these dams will provide the majority of Brazil’s electric capacity over the next several decades — primarily for mining, metal processing and industrial agriculture industries in the Eastern Amazon.

The dams have drawn intense opposition from environmentalists and indigenous groups. In June 2007, the 450-person Enawene Nawe tribe blocked a major highway in protest of the planned Xingu dams, while a gathering of more than 1,000 indigenous representatives is planned for May 19-23 in the city of Altamira.

In the same week, however, the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) announced that it would fund up to 75% of the Jirau dam on the Madeira River, which scheduled to be bid on May 19. The 3,300 MW Jirau dam would be the second new dam on the Madeira, after the planned 3,150 MW San Antonio dam, which was auctioned in 2007 and is projected to go operational by late 2012.

The vulnerability of major industrial materials to even short-term disruptions is highlighted by an article on the woes of Codelco Copper, the world’s largest copper producer. A two-week strike at three mines in Chile has reduced the company’s output by 41 percent (19,000 tons), costing it $100 million as of April 29.

Copper prices reached record highs in April after increasing 22 percent due to investors’ concerns that labor disputes throughout Latin America would continue to disrupt production.

Alabama and Florida officials are considering a limited-access toll road to connect Montgomery, AL to I-10 and then to an airport in Panama City, FL. A public hearing on the idea will be held at 9 a.m., May 15 at the Washington County Annex in Chipley, FL.

Resistance to the construction of I-69 kicked off with a weekend of resistance from April 18-22. Road opponents held an unpermitted march (more photos) on April 19 and many people calling in for the April 22 phone jam action reported receiving busy signals.

On the same day, banners were hung from freeway overpasses opposing the new highway.

A base camp has been set up in order to host resistance activities including community organizing dialogues and distribution of literature, documentation of the proposed route and any destructive acts committed by INDOT, wildlife surveying and support for direct action against the construction of the first 1.77 miles of I-69.

Your support is needed to stop this Corridor of the Future! Roadblock Earth First! is calling for people to travel to Indiana and help. If you can’t travel, there are other ways to help as well.

The Missouri Deparment of Transportation (MoDOT), as a way of promoting the idea of truck-only lanes for I-70, has placed a propaganda video on YouTube to sell the idea to the general public.

As part of the Corridors of the Future program, MoDOT is conducting a study into the possiblity of relieving traffic on I-70 by building dedicated lanes for freight traffic.

The video certainly explains why I-70 is important to global trade, although it inexplicably assumes this is also good for people in general. It also bemoans the lack of funding for the project, probably to prep people for increased transportation taxes or tolls.